Dr. Jaime Figueroa, the Principal Investigator of the “Animal Health in Marine Environment” line at the INCAR Center, presented the results of the study “Bioinformatic analysis of Genomic Islands in whole genomes of Piscirickettsia salmonis strains” at the 10th Congress of the Federation of European Microbiology, FEMS 2023, in Hamburg, Germany.
In this study, researchers determined one genogroup (EM) exhibiting a higher proportion of similar islands among its genomes compared to a second genogroup (LF), which showed greater variability. “Among the observed islands, a low number of virulent factors were detected, however, these factors seem to accumulate in adjacent regions, leaving the islands as gateways for the process of genetic and pathogenic rearrangement,” explained Dr. Jaime Figueroa, Academic at UACh and Principal Investigator at INCAR.
